XMRV Conference, Day 1

Head of the NIH Dr. Francis Collins opened the conference with a cautiously optimistic talk.  His take on XMRV and related MLVs combined "some skepticism" (largely due to the negative XMRV studies) with "enormous medical importance," if the positive papers win out.  As for the FDA/NIH/Harvard paper, Collins said that "differences might matter," referring to that study's findings of four XMRV-related MLVs in CFS patients and controls versus Dr. Judy Mikovits's XMRV finding.  Most importantly, he said a NIAID "multi-center study" on XMRV and related MLVs will be done and that he and NIAID Director Tony Fauci had discussed it.  Collins closed by saying it was a "very exciting time" and expected "great things" to come out of the discovery. 

Some of the information at today's conference was material from papers already published, and some came from papers not yet published that the researchers don't want out until they are published.  Frustrating to say the least--but none of today's findings were revelatory.  But tomorrow is another day.   I'll know more about what I can and can't report tomorrow. 

Dr. Ila Singh told me that she'll submit her autopsy study in a couple of months, and will submit her CFS study probably by the end of the year.  She wouldn't say what her findings are, but she has a very lovely smile.   

Dr. John Coffin was marvelous, talking a mile a minute--so fast that after a while you realize there's no way you'll ever be able to write as fast as he can speak. 

I chatted briefly with longtime CFS and HIV physician Dr. Nancy Klimas, who gave a word of caution about CFS patients using antiretrovirals, as they're known to mess with the cells' mitochondria. 

One light moment that had most everyone laughing came when one of the presenters, Dr. Ikeda, calmly bemoaned that the mice he used in his experiments were very aggressive, lightning quick, with the troublesome signature of "pretending to be dead when handled."

More to come.